The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-07-20
Agricultural and Mechanical
College.
REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES.


To His Exceiaency Robert Lowry, Governor OF
the state Of Mississippi:
The Board of Trustees of the A. u IL.
College of the State of Mississippi beg
leave to submit the following report OF
the operations and condition OF the Col
lege:
This institution has now been in OPP
Grafton since the fall of 1880, embracing
seven scholastic years. Some OF us have
been connected with the institution for
the whole of this period, and all of US
have watched its Inauguration and prog
ress with the most anxious solic,tIde, not
unmingled with grave apprehensions as
to its ultimate success as purely Agrl-
cultural and Mechanical Seminary. The
history of such institu ions had not been
such as to inspire entire confidence that
they could be made successful in the
main objects of their establishment.
Many had drifted into purely literary
schools, with but very slight tendency
to make agriculture and mechanics the
subjects of study and practice.
This Board, from the beginning, de-
termined to make all the studies and
teachings of the College subordinate to
the ain objects for which it was estab-
lished. We recognized the fact that the
main and essential business of the peo-
pie of Mississippi for the present, and
for years to come, was agricultural. We
were painfully impressed with the pat
ent and .undeniable fact that our agri
cultural lands were being rapidly worr
to exhaustion by a wasteful and unpro
ductive system of cultivation. We saw
that our farmers, oppressed with debt
and an exhorbitant taxation superin
duced by the corrupt and extravagan
government from which they had blu
i recently escaped, were, as il by an mex
. orable fate, forced to continue a system
which had already produced the mos
$ deplorabie results, and was tending t
: an utter exhaustion of their resources a
/ no distant day.
We recognized, also, the fact that tn
: proceeds of the land fund donate
+ by Congress were wholly insult
. cient to establish and carry o
V successfully the institution, eve
e if these proceeds had remained i
K the treasury or been dieiously investe
e for application to that purpose; and ths
g the whole fund had been, prior to Janr
# ary, 1876, used in a wasteful and Co
o rupt administration of the State govern
a ment, from which waste the whole co;
d of establishing and maintaining the Co
e lege must necessarily come from tax
Y ton. This taxation is just as one
r Gus, whether IL is applied as a don:
c ton to the College or in payment of til
d debt to the College fund, which ha
,e been created by the waste before me-
,e toned.
d Seeing the needs of an improved sy
N tenn of agriculture, and recognizing ii
ne burdens which this improvement wou
is impose, we determined, first, to make a
rs the money appropriated subservient
70 the advancement of agriculture, and
as make the most economical and usef
10 expenditure of it. The Trustees wei
ut and are, all more or less directly int
o. ested in agriculture, and all of us felt
re personal need of a more intelligent al
b. more remunerative system. Actual
by these motives, the Board organize
under the law, and have continued
operate the College to the present day
We do not claim to have made
he mistakes; for in the path we tro
- strewed all the way with the wrecks
" similar enterprises and with disappoil
10 ments and failures, it was impossit
Is, that mistakes should not be made; b
of we feel authorized to say, now, TIL
vo considering the means at our commar
~ the College has been a great success
or successful, if not more so than any 81
he liar institution in the Union.
he We here submit some statistics
- that subject. The whole amount
81 ceived by the College, to date, is as f
he lows:
ed RECEIVED FROM rHs STATE